Well, the company's not back (not that we know of) but more books have been found.

This Kickstarter is for the reprinting of a 1911 Engineer's Handbook, a 1911 Field Guide and a 1912 Field Guide. These were simple, utilitarian books, meant to be kept in breast pockets and used daily. They're 3.5"x5" and 32 pages long. That's 30 'bots per book and two pages of statistics, delivery ranges, notes on optimum soil moisture & more.

They're not glossy catalogs like the last time around but books meant for greasy-fingered mechanics & 'bot enthusiasts. They're artifacts of a different era and they should be shared just like the last catalog was shared.

I'm hoping you'll help pay for the reprinting of these books.

Let me break in for a minute to announce two new stretch goals, one of which is already met!

At $5,000 everyone is getting smartphone/tablet/desktop wallpapers & lockscreens. We're already past $5,000, so pledge now & know you'll get them. As the Kickstarter campaign closes we'll figure out a way for me to get a list of backer devices but suffice to say, if you have any flavor of iPhone, Android phone, tablet, computing device, I'm going to hook you up (or at least try to). It'll be ten different designs formatted for phones and then one desktop wallpaper. Here are a couple used as lockscreens on my iPhone 4s.

As I said, those are already part of the package. Thank you, everyone, for getting us here. So the next goal?

A fourth book.

At 200% funded, everyone's getting another book! Four books instead of three.

This fourth book, though, won't be more 'bots. It'll be an Official Wrylon Robotical Ready-To-Use Notebook with a fully-designed cover and 32 blank, grid-ruled pages ready for your own 'bot sketches, notes, plans for conquering the world and grocery lists. It's good-looking and functional. What awesome things will you fill yours up with?

Here's a WIP of the book, complete with a signature field so everyone will know it's your book and not anyone else's.

This fourth book is yours once we hit 200% funded. I think we can do this. I'm pretty stoked.

Now back to the original pitch...

How'd these books come to be?

For one of my previous Kickstarter reward tiers I drew 'bots. A lot of 'bots. 160 to be exact (not counting a few that I smudged, spilled coffee on or otherwise had to send to the scrap heap). I really like these 'bots. It was amazing and fun drawing them for backers and I was a little bit sad every time I sent one off - at the same time thrilled to think they'd soon land safely & be appreciated.

So I scanned the sketches before mailing them - and wound up with 160 'bots that I really want to share. These three mini-books are 90 of them. 90 of Wrylon's automatonical delivery 'bots packaged in three pocket-sized notebooks for you to enjoy & share.

So where's the story? Didn't you say there was more story?

I did but it's not in here, not in any substantial way. It's something I'm still working on and still excited about but it's just not ready. In the meantime, these books sort of made themselves and I think they're a great piece of the Wrylon mythos that can help get more people excited about the world and the stories to come.

I'm going to be bringing Wrylon to WonderCon (like a smaller ComicCon) in March and I'd love to bring some of these books with me.

Show me more pictures.

Okay.

All of the 'bots are drawn and scanned. I'm going through & cleaning them up in Photoshop so they look perfect. I'm going to revisit all of the covers before sending the books to print and I'm still writing the inside copy. The book will be ready to go well before my printing deadline (see below for schedule).

The Rewards

The three books. Simple. Inexpensive. Totally awesome. $15 for international shipping.

The three books PLUS five stickers. Five awesome stickers, depicting some of Wrylon Robotical's more popular badges. Limited to 50. I'll add more if I have the stock.

The three books PLUS eight postcards. Or call them art cards. Either way, they're sendable, framable, suitable for sticking in the spokes of your bike (but they're bigger than trading cards so maybe use them on your 29'er), making houses of cards with...Mostly anything you like. Limited to 30. I'll add more if I have the stock.

Three books, five stickers, eight cards. Lots of stuff. Limited to 50. I'll add more if I have the stock.

Retailer-special. Five sets of the three books.

What's the money for?

Printing and shipping. Like with my last project, I'm working with a printer here in the 'States. I'm really happy that I can continue to keep working locally and with a printer who does great work and uses 100% recycled papers and vegetable-based inks.

When will you get the books?

I've already gone over a schedule with the printer and I'm sending the files in the first week of March in order to have the books printed and in my hands by the last week of March. I will be ready to start shipping the books in the first week of April. This will be my second experience shipping lots of books (assuming we're successful) and I'll be more efficient this time around - and I will not be shipping the books during the busiest mail time of the year.

Risks and challenges

If funded, this will be my second Kickstartered book. The art is done. All I have left to do are some layout tweaks and a bit of writing before I can hand it off to the printer. I've got my printer lined up, we have a schedule, and they're ready to go.

Compared with my last book, I've built more time into shipping - and I won't be shipping hundreds of books between December 22nd-Jan 1st. While my last book was a success, I did fumble a little on fulfillment. On average, backers got their books 1-2 weeks later than promised - not a huge delay but a bummer around Christmas/holiday time. I do not expect such problems shipping in April - so long as I don't show up at the post office with 500 books on April Fool's Day. Somehow, that joke would wind up being on me :)

Pledge $50 or more

5 backers
All gone!

Five sets of three books, stamped, signed & numbered.

This is a retailer-special. I want to support brick & mortar folk who are selling cool stuff. If you'd like multiple copies for yourself & friends, please select the $12 reward & add multiples of $12 to your pledge.

Estimated delivery:Apr 2013

Ships anywhere in the world

Funding period

Feb 11, 2013 - Mar 13, 2013
(30 days)

Eureka! You've found our little secret.

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